This disclosure is generally in the field of pharmaceutical agents for use in treating the bladder, and more particularly to drug delivery systems, methods, and drug formulations for targeted treatment of urinary bladder cancer.
Delivery of therapeutic agents to the urinary bladder is difficult. Current practice requires systemic administration using doses which result in significant exposure to healthy tissues and relatively low exposure within the bladder. Frequently the systemic exposure leads to unwanted or harmful side effects which limit the usefulness of the agent in treating bladder disease.
To avoid systemic effects, drugs may be delivered locally onto tissues at or near the target tissue. However, such local administration may not be well tolerated by the tissue at the delivery site and/or may not be sufficiently permeable to the particular drug being delivered. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a therapeutic agent that is well tolerated by the bladder when the agent is applied at concentrations effective to achieve sufficient therapeutic (i.e., cytotoxic) concentrations within the target tissues.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved drug delivery methods and systems for treating the bladder, such as in the treatment of bladder cancer, whether as neoadjuvant therapy, adjuvant therapy, or palliative therapy.